I like to stay in contact with the area I grew up in.
Although I haven't lived in east Tennessee in going on six years now, my parents are there and I still have friends in the region. I try to check in with my folks daily (since I'm an only child and all) and my friends periodically.
I do, religiously, check in with my hometown newspaper the Kingsport Times-News. The Times-News was never a first class paper by any means. After all, their former sports editor used to put the golf scores at Ridgefields above the fold and things like the World Series below it. But my biggest problem is that their website is absolutely horrible in that they are trying to make the site a community forum. What does a community forum do you ask?
Click on any news story and it will become apparent, as this misguided endeavor is on every page. A community forum allows country folk with digital cameras to upload asinie pictures of their family that no one wants to see. Once they are online, they go into a random picture generator that runs at the top right (your left) corner of every news story. This means that, when you want to read a story about the shootout at Club Limelight or the three car accident on I-81 that killed two, you will doubtlessly see a picture of some toothy three-year old child smiling into their grandpa's camera and looking like a reject from the Gomer Pyle show. My personal favorite of these are when you click on stories about child molestation and see a pic of some old man holding a little girl on his lap. This has happened on more than one occassion.
The Times News website has no filter at all as far as I can tell. You get such wonderful captions as "Here is Ashley just being herself" or "Peyton loves his papaw." This is simply brutal and takes away from the value of the website infinitely.
Why do I need to see the picture of a preschooler from Chuckey when I am trying to get my news? I don't think I really want to see a picture of a hummingbird at some guy's bird feeder in Church Hill at any time. If I was a Chemical Engineering graduate entertaining a job offer from Eastman and I saw that site, I would turn down the offer in three seconds.
The Times-News. Weakening economic development one job candidate at a time.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Speaking of Shoddy Journalism
1 comment:
In terms of scaring off potential newcomers, I don't think the pictures are nearly as bad as the comments. The Dawn of Hope's got nothing on the mouthbreather response to these topics:
ACLU demands apology for suspension of gay student for protesting harassment Sodomy IS against the laws of Tennessee AND nature. Except for the SCOTUS decision striking those laws down, but that doesn't cover nature
Sen. "Racebaitin'" Robert Corker spouts jingoistic gibberish Idiots from both sides of the aisle come together to lower discourse. Just like the TV!
THE KLAN KOMES TO KINGSPORT! I gotta quote this one:
"They want to print all of the comments from people who are downing the KKK, but they would rather not hear from those of us who believe in a pure white America. The problem is that none of the people who are making these comments have ever been to a rally or a meeting. If just one time you would show up, just out of morbid curiosity, you would find that most of us are good, God-fearing, decent white people who feel strongly about our beliefs. What we done at the rally was no different than what they do every Friday night at the Dungannon Fire Hall. They have The Good Times Band there almost every Friday night and you can hear them all the way down at the river where we had our rally. We don't cuss and throw a fit to get them threw out of Dungannon. What about the church services they have at the various churches every Sunday? When the Spirit gets in those people, they make a lot of noise, but no one is complaining. They are no different than us."
No, there is absolutely no difference at all between a concert, church services, and a gathering of inbred racist inbred knuckledragging inbred fucktards. I can't believe her post is legible!
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